Image pickup apparatus performing automatic photographing processing, image pickup method and computer-readable recording medium recorded with program thereof

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is an image pickup apparatus comprising: an image pickup section to pick up a subject image; and a central processing section to perform processing of arbitrarily setting at least one automatic photographing condition among a plurality of kinds of automatic photographing conditions, judging whether “the set automatic photographing condition” is satisfied or not, and instructing the image pickup section to pick up a recording subject image when “the set automatic photographing condition” is judged to be satisfied.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus performing aphotographing of a subject automatically, the image pickup method, and acomputers readable recording medium recorded with a program thereof.

2. Description of Related Art

Conventionally, an image pickup apparatus has been known, which performsphotographing automatically when all of the subject people come to faceto the image pickup apparatus at the time of photographing a groupphotograph by detecting the eyes of the subjects. Thereby, a photographin a state in which all the people face to the image pickup apparatuscan be obtained.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide animage pickup apparatus, an image pickup method, and a computer-readablerecording medium recorded with a program thereof, which enable a user toobtain a desired photographed image easily.

To achieve at least one of the above objects, according to a firstaspect of the present invention, there is provided an image pickupapparatus comprising:

an image pickup section to pick up a subject image;

a condition setting section to arbitrarily set at least one automaticphotographing condition among a plurality of kinds of automaticphotographing conditions;

a condition judging section to judge whether the automatic photographingcondition set by the condition setting section is satisfied forrecording the subject image picked up by the image pickup section ornot; aid

an instruction control section to instruct the subject image picked upby the image pickup section to be recorded when the set automaticphotographing condition is judged to be satisfied by the conditionjudging section.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provideda recording medium to store a computer-executable program to enable acomputer of an image pickup apparatus comprising an image pickup sectionto pick up a subject image to perform as:

a condition setting section to arbitrarily set at least one automaticphotographing condition among a plurality of kinds of automaticphotographing conditions;

a condition judging section to judge whether the automatic photographingcondition set by the condition setting section is satisfied forrecording the subject image picked up by the image pickup section ornot; and

an instruction control section to instruct the subject image picked upby the image pickup section to be recorded when the set automaticphotographing condition is judged to be satisfied by the conditionjudging section.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is providedan image pickup method of an image pickup apparatus comprising an imagepickup section to pick up a subject image, comprising:

arbitrarily setting at least one automatic photographing condition amonga plurality of kinds of automatic photographing conditions;

judging whether the automatic photographing condition set in the settingis satisfied for recording the subject image picked up by the imagepickup section or not; and

instructing the subject image picked up by the image pickup section tobe recorded when the set automatic photographing condition is judged tobe satisfied in the judging.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the schematic configuration of animage pickup apparatus of a first embodiment to which the presentinvention is applied;

FIG. 2 is a view schematically showing an example of an automaticphotographing condition setting screen displayed in an image displayingsection of the image pickup apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3A is a rear view of the image pickup apparatus of FIG. 1 and aview schematically showing an example of a screen pertaining toauto-shutter photographing processing;

FIG. 3B is a rear view of the image pickup apparatus of FIG. 1 and aview schematically showing an example of the screen pertaining to theauto-shutter photographing processing;

FIG. 3C is a rear view of the image pickup apparatus of FIG. 1 and aview schematically showing an example of the screen pertaining to theauto-shutter photographing processing;

FIG. 4A is a rear view of the image pickup apparatus of FIG. 1 and aview schematically showing an example of the screen pertaining to theauto-shutter photographing processing;

FIG. 4B is a rear view of the image pickup apparatus of FIG. 1 and aview schematically showing an example of the screen pertaining to theauto-shutter photographing processing;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation pertaining tothe auto-shutter photographing processing by the image pickup apparatusof FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation pertaining toautomatic photographing condition judging processing of the auto-shutterphotographing processing of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7A is a diagram schematically showing an example of automaticphotographing conditions stored in a data memory of the image pickupapparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7B is a diagram schematically showing an example of automaticphotographing conditions stored in the data memory of the image pickupapparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7C is a diagram schematically showing an example of automaticphotographing conditions stored in the data memory of the image pickupapparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 8 is a view schematically showing an example of an automaticphotographing condition setting screen displayed in an image displayingsection of an image pickup apparatus of a first modification;

FIG. 9A is a schematic view of a subject for describing automaticphotographing condition judging processing of the image pickup apparatusof FIG. 8;

FIG. 9B is a schematic view of a subject for describing the automaticphotographing condition judging processing of the image pickup apparatusof FIG. 8;

FIG. 9C is a schematic view of a subject for describing the automaticphotographing condition judging processing of the image pickup apparatusof FIG. 8;

FIG. 10A is a diagram showing an example of correspondence relationsbetween the degrees of importance of selectable automatic photographingconditions and judgment standards according to the states of level bars;

FIG. 10B is a diagram schematically showing an example of the automaticphotographing conditions stored in the data memory of the image pickupapparatus of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10C is a diagram showing an example of correspondence relationsbetween the degrees of importance of the selectable automaticphotographing conditions and the judgment standards according to thestates of the level bars;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing the schematic configuration of animage pickup apparatus of a second modification;

FIG. 12A is a diagram schematically showing an example of automaticphotographing conditions stored in a data memory of the image pickupapparatus of FIG. 11; and

FIG. 12B is a diagram schematically showing an example of the automaticphotographing conditions stored in the data memory of the image pickupapparatus of FIG. 11.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the following, concrete modes of the present invention will bedescribed with reference to the attached drawings. However, the scope ofthe invention is not limited to the shown examples.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the schematic configuration of animage pickup apparatus 100 of an embodiment to which the presentinvention is applied.

First Embodiment

The image pickup apparatus 100 of a first embodiment arbitrarily sets atleast one selectable automatic photographing condition among a pluralityof kinds of selectable automatic photographing conditions to performauto-shutter photographing processing.

More concretely, the image pickup apparatus 100 uses the plurality ofkinds of selectable automatic photographing conditions to be able to setan automatic photographing condition arbitrarily. When the automaticphotographing condition is satisfied, auto-shutter photographingprocessing is performed.

(Description of Block Diagram)

As shown in FIG. 1, the image pickup apparatus 100 is composed of animage pickup section 1, an image pickup auxiliary section 2, a displaysection 3, an operation section 4, a recording medium 5, a soundcollecting section 6, a control section 7, and the like.

The image pickup section 1 includes an image pickup lens group 11, anelectric image pickup section 12, a picture signal processing section13, an image memory 14, a photographing control section 15, and thelike.

The image pickup lens group 11 is composed of a plurality of imagepickup lenses.

The electric image pickup section 12 is composed of an image pickupdevice, such as a charge coupled device (CCD), a complementarymetal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS), or the like, which converts a subjectimage passing through the image pickup lens group 11 into atwo-dimensional image signal.

The picture signal processing section 13 performs predetermined imageprocessing to an image signal output from the electric image pickupsection 12.

The image memory 14 temporarily stores the image signal after the imageprocessing.

The photographing control section 15 controls the electric image pickupsection 12 and the picture signal processing section 13 under thecontrol of a central processing section 71. To put it concretely, thephotographing control section 15 makes the electric image pickup section12 picks up a subject for a predetermined exposure time, and controlsthe execution of the processing of reading an image signal from theimage pickup region of the electric image pickup section 12 at apredetermined frame rate.

The image pickup section 1 of the configuration mentioned aboveconstitutes an image pickup section to pick up a subject, and to obtainrecording image data (an image signal).

The image pickup auxiliary section 2 is driven when the image pickupsection 1 picks up a subject. The image pickup auxiliary section 2 iscomposed of a focus driving section 21, a zoom driving section 22, andthe like.

The focus driving section 21 drives a focus mechanism section (notshown) connected to the image pickup lens group 11.

The zoom driving section 22 drives a zoom mechanism section (riot shown)connected to the image pickup lens group 11.

Incidentally, the focus driving section 21 and the zoom driving section22 are connected to the photographing control section 15, and performtheir driving under the control of the photographing control section 15.

The display section 3 displays an image picked up by the image pickupsection 1, and is placed so as to expose the display screen of thedisplay section 3 on the rear side of the image pickup apparatus 100(see FIG. 3A and the like). Moreover, the display section 3 is equippedwith, for example, a display control section 31 and an image displayingsection 32.

The display control section 31 includes a video memory (not shown) totemporarily save the display data which is suitably output from thecentral processing section 71.

The image displaying section 32 displays a predetermined image andinformation on a display screen on the basis of an output signal fromthe display control section 31.

That is, the image displaying section 32 displays an automaticphotographing condition setting screen G1 (see FIG. 2) by automaticphotographing condition setting processing (the details of which will bedescribed later). Here, as shown in FIG. 2, the automatic photographingcondition setting screen G1 associates the items of a plurality kinds ofselectable automatic photographing conditions with selecting buttons(which are displayed as outlined circles) to select each of the items.The items are defined as the candidates of automatic photographingconditions capable of being selected and set, such as “Stopped”,“Smiled”, “Sound Detected”, “Faced Camera”, “Eyes Opened”, and “MouthStopped”. Then, by selecting and setting desired items, such as“Stopped”, “Smiled”, and “Faced Camera” among the plurality of kinds ofitems of the automatic photographing conditions, the above mentionedoutlined circles (including no dots) are changed to colored circles (dotdisplays) colored in a predetermined color (see FIG. 2).

Incidentally, the item “Smiled” currently selected on the basis of auser's predetermined operation of a cursor button c1 among the pluralityof kinds of the items of selectable automatic photographing conditionsis made to be a display (dot display) in which the background portionthereof is colored in a predetermined color.

Moreover, the image displaying section 32 displays a preview image (as alive view), the preview image being picked up by the image pickupsection 1, and sequentially displays an image pickup time state screen Cof an image pickup state related to the automatic photographingcondition set in the automatic photographing condition settingprocessing (the details of which will be described later) in real timeat this time (see FIGS. 3A-3C).

To put it concretely, the image pickup time state screen C performs theon-screen display (OSD) of the changes of the image pickup stateaccording to the set selectable automatic photographing conditions (suchas “Stopped”, “Smiled”, and “Faced Camera”; see FIGS. 3A-3C) in a levelbar form. For example, as shown in FIGS. 3A-3C, the image pickup timestate screen C displays each of the items of “Motion” associated withthe selectable automatic photographing condition “Stopped”, “smile”associated with the selectable automatic photographing condition“Smiled”, and “facing direction” associated with the selectableautomatic photographing condition “Faced Camera” in five-step levels ata slightly lower position of the image displaying section 32. Then, wheneach item of the selectable automatic photographing conditions is judgedto satisfy a predetermined standard value in the selectable automaticphotographing condition judging processing (the details of which will bedescribed later), then the left-side four level bars out of thefive-step level bars corresponding to the item are changed to be in acolored state, and “OK!” is displayed on the right side thereof.Moreover, when an item is judged to be almost completely satisfied, thenall of the five level bars corresponding to the item are changed to bein the colored state, and “Perfect!” is displayed on the right side (seeFIG. 3C). On the other hand, when any of the items is judged not tosatisfy to the predetermined standard value, then any of the level barscorresponding to the item is not colored according to the unsatisfieddegree, or one to three level bars from the left side in order arechanged to be in the colored state, and “NG!” is displayed on the rightside thereof (see FIGS. 3A and 3B).

Moreover, the image displaying section 32 temporarily displays arecording image (subject image) for the confirmation of the recordingimage recorded on the recording medium 5 after the image pickup of thesubject by the image pickup section 1, and at this time, the imagedisplaying section 32 displays an after-image pickup state screenpertaining to the image pickup state related to the automaticphotographing condition (or the selectable automatic photographingcondition) together with the recording image as an after-image pickupstate displaying section (after-image pickup state displaying section).The data pertaining to the image pickup state related to the automaticphotographing condition (or the selectable automatic photographingcondition) displayed at this time is stored in the recording medium 5together with the photographed image. Incidentally, the after-imagepickup state screen may be, for example, the almost same one as theimage pickup time state screen C when the recording image of the subjecthas been instructed (see FIG. 3C).

Hereby, the image pickup state at the time of actual image pickup can begrasped more suitably after the image pickup of a subject.

The image pickup time state screen C and the after-image pickup statescreen which is almost the same as the image pickup time state screen C,are adapted to be able to switch a plurality of display forms includingturning on and off of a display by, for example, performing apredetermined operation of a display setting button 41 d which will bedescribed later. The following settings can be adapted for displayingthe recording images. That is, only a photographed subject image may bedisplayed as the recording image, or only the after-image pickup statescreen which is almost the same as the image pickup time state screen C,may be displayed as the recording image.

The operation section 4 is the one for performing predeterminedoperations of the image pickup apparatus 100. The operation section 4 isequipped with an operation inputting section 41, an input circuit 42,and the like.

The operation inputting section 41 is composed of a shutter button 41 a,a menu button 41 b, a selection determining button 41 c, the displaysetting button 41 d, and the like.

The shutter button 41 a is provided, for example, on the top surfaceside of the image pickup apparatus 100 (see FIG. 3A and the like), andinstructs the image pickup section 1 to pick up a subject.

The menu button 41 b is provided, for example, on the rear side of theimage pickup apparatus 100 (see FIG. 3A and the like), and instructs thedisplay of various menus of the auto-shutter photographing processing,the self-timer photographing processing, and the like.

The selection determining button 41 c is provided, for example, on thelower side of the menu button 41 b (see FIG. 3A and the like), and isequipped with the cursor button c1 for performing the selection ofvarious items, an enter button c2, which is provided on the inner partof the cursor button cl for determining the item selected by anoperation of the cursor button c1, and the like.

The display setting button 41 d is provided, for example, on the lowerside of the selection determining button 41 c (see FIG. 3A and the like)for switching the display content displayed in the image displayingsection 32.

The input circuit 42 is the one for inputting an operation signal to thecentral processing section 71, the operation signal being output andinput from the operation inputting section 41.

The recording medium 5 is composed of, for example, a card typenonvolatile memory (flash memory), a hard disk or the like.

Moreover, the recording medium 5 records the automatic photographingcondition set in the automatic photographing condition settingprocessing (the details of which will be described later), the recordingimage data generated by the image pickup section 1, and the image pickupstate of a subject related to the automatic photographing condition,that is, an image pickup state of whether the image pickup state hasbeen “OK!,” “Perfect”, or the like, in the state of associating themwith one another after the image pickup of the subject with the imagepickup section 1.

Here, the recording medium 5 constitutes a photographing conditionrecording section to record the automatic photographing conditions andthe recording image data in a state of associating them with each other,and also constitutes an image pickup state recording section to recordthe image pickup states and the recording image data in a state ofassociating them with each other.

The sound collecting section 6 is equipped with, for example, amicrophone, an amplifier, and the like, although their illustration isomitted. Moreover, when the sound collecting section 6 collects apredetermined sound produced from the periphery in the state in whichthe item “Sound Detected” is selected and set as the automaticphotographing condition in the auto-shutter photographing processing,then the sound collecting section 6 outputs a predeterminedphotographing instruction signal to the central processing section 71.

Furthermore, the following configuration may be adopted: the sounds of aspecific person or a specific key word are recorded in advance, and thenthe sound authentication of recording data is performed to display thesound collecting level based on the sounds of the specific person, orthe specific key word, or their combination as an image pickup state.

The control section 7 is the one to control each section of the imagepickup apparatus 100. The control section 7 is composed of the centralprocessing section 71, a program memory 72, a data memory 73, and thelike.

The central processing section 71 performs various control operations inaccordance with various processing programs for the image pickupapparatus 100, which programs are stored in the program memory 72.

Incidentally, the central processing section 71 may be equipped with acache memory to store the program read from the program memory 72,although the cache memory is not shown.

The data memory 73 is composed of, for example, a flash memory or thelike, and temporarily stores the data to be processed by the centralprocessing section 71, and the like.

The program memory 72 stores various programs and data that arenecessary for the operation of the central processing section 71. To putit concretely, the program memory 72 stores an automatic photographingcondition setting program 72 a, an automatic photographing conditionjudging program 72 b, an image pickup state display control program 72c, a judgment starting time setting program 72 d, an automatic imagepickup instruction control program 72 e, and the like.

Further, the central processing section 71 comprises an automaticphotographing condition setting program processing section 71 acorresponding to the automatic photographing condition setting program72 a, an automatic photographing condition judging program processingsection 71 b corresponding to the automatic photographing conditionjudging program 72 b, an image pickup state display control programprocessing section 71 c corresponding to the image pickup state displaycontrol program 72 c, a judgment starting time setting programprocessing section 71 d corresponding to the judgment starting timesetting program 72 d, an automatic image pickup instruction controlprogram processing section 71 e corresponding to the automatic imagepickup instruction control program 72 e, and the like.

(Description of Program)

The automatic photographing condition setting program 72 a is a programfor realizing the function of automatic photographing condition settingprocessing to arbitrarily set at least one selectable automaticphotographing condition among a plurality of kinds of selectableautomatic photographing conditions. To put it concretely, the centralprocessing section 71 executes the automatic photographing conditionsetting program 72 a. When a user performs predetermined operations ofthe menu button 41 b of the operation inputting section 41 to select theauto-shutter photographing processing, the image displaying section 32displays the automatic photographing condition setting screen G1. Theuser arbitrarily selects and sets at least two selectable automaticphotographing conditions (for example, “Stopped”, “Smiled”, and “FacedCamera”; see FIG. 2) among the plurality of kinds of selectableautomatic photographing conditions by the predetermined operations ofthe selection determining button 41 c such as the cursor button c1 andthe enter button c2. A supplementary description is added here. When atleast one selectable automatic photographing condition is selected, thenthe automatic photographing condition setting processing can operate.But, at least two selectable automatic photographing conditions areselected and set here in order to make it easy to understand thedescription of the embodiment and the configuration of the presentinvention.

Here, the central processing section 71 and the operation inputtingsection 41 constitute a condition setting section to arbitrarily set atleast one selectable automatic photographing condition among a pluralityof kinds of selectable automatic photographing conditions. By setting anarbitrary selectable automatic photographing condition among theplurality of kinds of selectable automatic photographing conditionshere, the automatic photographing condition is determined here.

Moreover, it is desirable to configure the automatic photographingconditions so as to able to store the setting of the automaticphotographing conditions that has been once performed. Furthermore, itis desirable to store only the setting that has been performed last.Hereby, the convenience of a user is improved.

Here, the plurality of kinds of selectable automatic photographingconditions means the ones classified by each item, and does not considerthe degree of importance pertaining to the judgment of whether each itemis satisfied or not (the details of which will be described in a firstmodification) To put it concretely, as the selectable automaticphotographing conditions, for example, “Stopped”, “Smiled”, “SoundDetected”, “Faced Camera”, “Eyes Opened”, “Mouth Stopped”, and the like,can be cited.

The automatic photographing condition judging program 72 b makes thecentral processing section 71 function as a condition judging section.That is, the central processing section 71 judges whether the automaticphotographing condition set by the automatic photographing conditionsetting program is satisfied or not. Moreover, the automaticphotographing condition judging program 72 b includes a selectableautomatic photographing condition judging program and a selectableautomatic photographing condition counting program, which will bedescribed later. That is, the reason is that, when each selectableautomatic photographing condition becomes a predetermined state (forexample, when all of the selectable automatic photographing conditionsare satisfied, or a predetermined number of the selectable automaticphotographing conditions is satisfied), the automatic photographingcondition is judged to be satisfied.

The selectable automatic photographing condition judging program makesthe central processing section 71 function as an individual judgmentsection. That is, the selectable automatic photographing conditionjudging program is a program for making the central processing section71 realize the function pertaining to the processing of judging whethereach selectable automatic photographing condition set in the automaticphotographing condition setting processing is satisfied or not. To putit concretely, the central processing section 71 executes the selectableautomatic photographing condition judging program to judge whether aplurality of automatic photographing conditions, such as the automaticphotographing conditions of “Stopped”, “Smiled”, “Faced Camera”, and thelike, which have been set in the automatic photographing conditionsetting processing after a user's depression operation of the shutterbutton 41 a, are satisfied or not.

For example, when the selectable automatic photographing condition“Smiled” is judged to be satisfied or not, then, as shown in FIGS. 4Aand 4B, the fact of whether a subject is smiling or not is judged byrecognizing the expression of a face (a part on which an almostrectangular frame W is displayed so as to be superimposed in FIGS. 4Aand 4B) detected by predetermined face detecting processing. Forexample, when the subject is judged not to be smiling (see FIG. 4A),then the selectable automatic photographing condition is not satisfied.On the other hand, when the subject is judged to have smiled (see FIG.4B), the selectable automatic photographing condition is judged to besatisfied.

Incidentally, as described below, it is also possible to configure thejudgment of the satisfaction of the selectable automatic photographingcondition so as to be performed in a predetermined state between thesmiling state and the not-smiling state.

Incidentally, the face detecting processing is the following processinghere: a face searching frame is scanned in predetermined directions inone piece of recording image data (image frame) among a plurality ofpieces of recording image data to specify characterizing portion (faceparts) corresponding to an eye, a nose, a mouth, and the like; it isjudged whether the recording image data is that of a face or not on thebasis of the positional relations between each of the face parts; andwhen the recording image data is judged to be a face, the searchingframe region is detected as a face region. But, the face detectingprocessing may not be limited to the above processing.

Moreover, the selectable automatic photographing condition “Stopped”judges whether the subject has stopped or not on the basis of whetherthe blur of the subject has disappeared or not on the basis of, forexample, the recording image data generated by the image pickup section1.

Moreover, “Eyes Opened”, “Mouth Stopped”, and “Faced Camera” are judgedon the basis of the expression recognition of a face detected by theface detecting processing almost similarly to the judgment about“Smiled”.

Moreover, “Sound Detected” judges whether a predetermined sound isproduced or not on the basis of a sound collecting result by the soundcollecting section 6.

The selectable automatic photographing condition counting program is onefor counting the number of the judgment results obtained by judging thatthe selectable automatic photographing condition is satisfied by theselectable automatic photographing condition judging program.

The automatic photographing condition judging program 72 b may judgewhether the automatic photographing condition is satisfied or not on thebasis of the counting by the selectable automatic photographingcondition counting program.

The image pickup state display control program 72 c makes the centralprocessing section 71 function as a sequential display control section.That is, the image pickup state display control program 72 c is aprogram for making the central processing section 71 realize thefunction pertaining to image pickup state displaying processing fordisplaying the image pickup time state screen C pertaining to the imagepickup state related to the automatic photographing condition of asubject image picked up by the image pickup section 1 on the imagedisplaying section 32 in real time on the basis of a judgment result ofwhether the automatic photographing condition is satisfied or not by theautomatic photographing condition judging processing.

To put it concretely, as shown in FIGS. 3A-3C, the central processingsection 71 executes the image pickup state display control program 72 c,and thereby the central processing section 71 displays the image pickuptime state screen C to express each selectable automatic photographingcondition in a five-step level according to the judgment result ofwhether to satisfy each automatic photographing condition or not by theautomatic photographing condition judging processing. For example, whena subject is moving, then the situation is judged not to satisfy theselectable automatic photographing condition “Stopped” in the automaticphotographing condition judging processing. Consequently, the level barsof “Motion” become the state in which one to three of them are colored(FIG. 3A shows the state in which only one level bar is displayed to becolored). On the other hand, when the movement of the subject stops, thesituation is judged to satisfy the selectable automatic photographingcondition “Stopped”, and the level bars of “Motion” becomes the state inwhich four or more level bars are colored (FIGS. 3B and 3C show thestates in which four level bars are displayed to be colored).

Here, the state of the level 4 may be supposed to be the state in whichthe motion of the subject is almost stopped, and the state of the level5 may be supposed to be the state in which the state in which the motionof the subject is almost stopped is lasting for a predetermined time orlonger. Alternately, the state of the level 4 may be supposed to be thestate in which the motion of the subject is almost stopped, and thestate of the level 5 may be supposed to be the state in which the motionof the subject is more steadily stopped than the state of the level 4.

Moreover, when a subject is not smiling, then the situation is judgednot to satisfy the selectable automatic photographing condition “Smiled”in the automatic photographing condition judging processing.Consequently, the level bars of “smile” become the state in which one tothree of them are colored (FIGS. 3A and 3B show the states in which onlyone level bar is displayed to be colored). On the other hand, when thesubject is in a smiling state, the situation is judged to satisfy theselectable automatic photographing condition “Smiled”, and the levelbars of “smile” become the state in which four or more of them arecolored (FIG. 3C shows a state in which all of the five level bars aredisplayed to be colored).

Here, the state of the level 4 may be supposed to be a smiling state,and the state of the level 5 may be supposed to be the state in whichthe smiling state has been lasting for a predetermined time or longer.Alternately, the state of the level 4 may be supposed to be the smilingstate, and the state of the level 5 may be supposed to be a state inwhich the subject is more steadily smiling than the state of the level4.

That is, the state of the level 5 may be supposed to be the state inwhich the state of the level 4 is lasting for the predetermined time orlonger.

The judgment starting time setting program 72 d is a program for makingthe central processing section 71 realize the function pertaining to theprocessing of setting the starting time of the judgment whether tosatisfy the automatic photographing condition or not by the automaticphotographing condition judging processing to a time after the lapse ofa predetermined time from a predetermined operation. To put itconcretely, the central processing section 71 executes the judgmentstarting time setting program 72 d, and thereby when the self-timerphotographing processing is selected on the basis of a user'spredetermined operation of the menu button 41 b of the operationinputting section 41, a self-timer function sets the starting time ofthe judgment of the automatic photographing condition to the time afterthe lapse of the predetermined time from the depression operation of theshutter button 41 a.

Here, the central processing section 71 and the operation inputtingsection 41 constitutes a judgment starting time setting section to setthe starting time of the judgment of the automatic photographingcondition judging processing to the time after the lapse of thepredetermined time from the predetermined operation.

The automatic image pickup instruction control program 72 e makes thecentral processing section 71 function as an instruction controlsection. That is, the automatic image pickup instruction control program72 e is a program for making the central processing section 71 realizethe function pertaining to the processing of instructing the imagepickup of the recording image of a subject by the image pickup section 1when the automatic photographing condition judging processing judgesthat a situation satisfies the automatic photographing conditions. Toput it concretely, the central processing section 71 executes theautomatic image pickup instruction control program 72 e, and therebywhen the automatic photographing conditions are judged to be satisfiedin the automatic photographing condition judging processing, the centralprocessing section 71 makes the image pickup section 1 pick up arecording image for image recording, and instructs the image pickupsection 1 to obtain the recording image data of the recording image.

(Description of Flowchart)

Next, the auto-shutter photographing processing is described in detailwith reference to FIGS. 5 and 6.

Here, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of the operationpertaining to the auto-shutter photographing processing.

As shown in FIG. 5, first, when the auto-shutter photographingprocessing is selected on the basis of a user's predetermined operationof the menu button 41 b of the operation inputting section 41 (Step S1),the central processing section 71 executes the automatic photographingcondition setting program 72 a in the program memory 72 to make theimage displaying section 32 display the automatic photographingcondition setting screen C1 therein, and arbitrarily sets a selectableautomatic photographing condition among the plurality of kinds ofselectable automatic photographing conditions on the basis of thepredetermined operation of the selection determining button 41 c to setthe automatic photographing condition (Step S1; automatic photographingcondition setting processing).

Incidentally, each item of “Stopped”, “Smiled”, “Sound Detected”, “FacedCamera”, “Eyes Opened”, “Mouth Stopped”, and the like, of the selectableautomatic photographing conditions is numbered from 1 in order, and theitems are temporarily stored in the data memory 73 (see FIGS. 7A-7C andthe like).

Next, when the self-timer photographing processing is selected on thebasis of a user's predetermined operation of the menu button 41 b of theoperation inputting section 41 (Step S3), then the central processingsection 71 executes the judgment starting time setting program 72 d inthe program memory 72 to set the starting time of the judgment of theautomatic photographing conditions (including the judgment of theselectable automatic photographing condition) to a time after the lapseof a predetermined time from the depression operation of the shutterbutton 41 a (Step S4).

After that, the central processing section 71 judges whether theself-timer photographing processing is set or not (Step S51) on thebasis of the user's predetermined operation of the shutter button 41 ain the operation inputting section 41 (Step S5). When the self-timerphotographing processing is set (Step S51; YES), then the centralprocessing section 71 makes a not-shown timer start timing (Step S6),and judges whether the timed time has come to a predetermined set time(judgment starting time) or not (Step S7). Here, when the time is judgedto have come to the judgment starting time (Step S7; YES), the centralprocessing section 71 executes the automatic photographing conditionjudging program 72 b in the program memory 72 to perform the automaticphotographing condition judging processing to judge whether to satisfythe automatic photographing condition set in the automatic photographingcondition setting processing or not (Step S8).

Moreover, when the self-timer photographing processing is not set atStep S51 (Step S51; NO), then the central processing section 71 performsthe automatic photographing condition judging processing at Step S8.

In the following, the automatic photographing condition judgingprocessing is described in detail with reference to FIG. 6.

Here, FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of the operationpertaining to the automatic photographing condition judging processing.

As shown in FIG. 6, in the automatic photographing condition judgingprocessing, first, the central processing section 71 sets a number Npertaining to the judgment order of the automatic photographingcondition (Step S81), and reads a first selectable automaticphotographing condition (for example, “Stopped”; see FIG. 2) among theplurality of kinds of selectable automatic photographing conditions fromthe data memory 73 (Step S82) to judge whether the selectable automaticphotographing condition is set or not (Step S83).

When it is judged that the first selectable automatic photographingcondition is set at Step S83 (Step S83; YES), then the centralprocessing section 71 judges whether the selectable automaticphotographing condition is satisfied or not in a predetermined time(Step S84), and executes the image pickup state display control program72 c to make the image displaying section 32 display the image pickuptime state screen C (see FIGS. 3A-3C) pertaining to the change of theimage pickup state on the basis of the judgment result in real time (thedisplaying of the judging state).

Here, when it is judged that the automatic photographing condition issatisfied (Step S84; YES), then the central processing section 71 judgeswhether there is any other selectable automatic photographing conditionthat has not been subjected to the judgment processing yet among theplurality of kinds of selectable automatic photographing conditions ornot (Step S85). At this time, when the first selectable automaticphotographing condition is judged, it is judged to be “YES” at Step S85,and the central processing section 71 increments the number N pertainingto the judgment order of the selectable automatic photographingconditions by “+1” (Step S86) to move the processing to that at StepS82. Then, the central processing section 71 performs the succeedingprocessing of a second selectable automatic photographing condition (forexample, “Smiled”; see FIG. 2).

On the other hand, when it is judged that there is no read setselectable automatic photographing condition at Step S83 (Step S83; NO),the central processing section 71 moves the processing to that at StepS85, and judges whether any other selectable automatic photographingcondition exists or not (Step S85).

Moreover, when it is judged that the selectable automatic photographingcondition is not satisfied at Step S84 (Step S84; NO), the centralprocessing section 71 moves the processing to that at Step S81, andperforms the succeeding processing of the first selectable automaticphotographing condition.

When all of the plurality of kinds of selectable automatic photographingconditions have been judged in the way mentioned above and it is judgedthat no residual selectable automatic photographing conditions that havenot been subjected to the judgment processing exist among the pluralityof kinds of selectable automatic photographing conditions at Step S85(Step S85; NO), then the central processing section 71 judges that theautomatic photographing conditions are satisfied, and performs automaticphotographing. To put it more concretely, the central processing section71 executes the automatic image pickup instruction control program 72 ein the program memory 72 to make the image pickup section 1 pick up therecording image for image recording (Step S9), and makes the recordingmedium 5 record the recording image data pertaining to the recordingimage (Step S10).

At this time, it is supposed that the automatic photographing conditionsare also recorded in the state of being associated with the recordingimage data, and that the state data at the time of the satisfaction ofthe automatic photographing conditions indicating in which state eachselectable automatic photographing condition has satisfied the automaticphotographing conditions at the time of satisfying the automaticphotographing conditions is also recorded in the state of beingassociated with the recording image data.

Hereby, when a photographed image is confirmed later, it becomespossible to confirm in which automatic photographing condition thephotographed image has been photographed and in which state of theautomatic photographing conditions at the time of the automaticphotographing the photographed image has been photographed.

Then, the central processing section 71 executes a predetermined program(not shown) as an afterimage pickup state displaying control section,and temporarily displays an after-image pickup state screen pertainingto the image pickup state related to the set automatic photographingcondition together with the recording image for confirmation of therecording image in the image displaying section 32 (Step S11).

Incidentally, the display form of the screen of the recording image canbe changed by the depression of the display setting button 41 d asdescribed above.

As described above, according to the image pickup apparatus 100 of thefirst embodiment, a plurality of kinds of the selectable automaticphotographing conditions is arbitrarily set among a plurality of kindsof selectable automatic photographing conditions in the automaticphotographing condition setting screen G1 in the auto-shutterphotographing processing. When it is judged that all of the plurality ofkinds of selectable automatic photographing conditions is satisfied,then the recording image pickup of the subject image by the image pickupsection 1 is instructed. Consequently, the automatic photographingprocessing can be performed under the arbitrarily set automaticphotographing conditions, and a photograph desired by a user can beeasily obtained.

At this time, since the plurality of kinds of selectable automaticphotographing conditions can be suitably combined, not only thephotographs having less failures can be obtained by the automaticphotographing, but also the photographs complying with user's wishesmore can be obtained by changing the combinations of the selectableautomatic photographing conditions suitably, and then it is possible toprovide the more convenient image pickup apparatus 100.

Moreover, by displaying the image pickup state related to the automaticphotographing condition of a subject image in the image displayingsection 32 in real time, the present image pickup state is informed to aperson operating the shutter button 41 a, and it is possible to tell theunsatisfied automatic photographing conditions and the like to theperson of a subject. Consequently, the image pickup of the subject canbe performed more suitably.

Furthermore, after the image pickup of the subject, the automaticphotographing conditions, the recording image data, and the image pickupstate of the subject can be recorded in the recording medium 5 in thestate of being associated with one another, and consequently a user cangrasp the automatic photographing conditions of each piece of recordingimage data and the image pickup state of the subject. For example, inthe present embodiment, the standard value of an automatic photographingcondition is satisfied at the degree of four or more displayed levelbars in a five-step level bar display. It is possible to judge whetherthe level of a automatic photographing condition is the “OK!” level, inwhich four level bars were displayed at the time of the image pickup ofthe image, or the “Perfect!” level, in which five level bars weredisplayed at the time of the image pickup of the image, by recording theimage pickup state of the subject together with the automaticphotographing condition.

Moreover, it is possible to set the starting time of the judgment of theautomatic photographing conditions to a time after the elapse of thepredetermined time after the depression operation of the shutter button41 a by the self-timer function, and consequently it can be preventedthat the image pickup of a subject is performed immediately after theoperation of the shutter button 41 a.

For example, when a person who operates the shutter button 41 a wants tobe photographed together in a group photograph, the person who operatesthe shutter button 41 a cannot be photographed when the image pickup ofthe subjects is performed immediately after the depression operation ofthe shutter button 41 a. But, by shifting the operation timing of theshutter button 41 a and the starting timing of the judgment of theautomatic photographing conditions by the self-timer function, theperson who operates the shutter button 41 a can be photographed in thegroup photograph in an enough time.

Incidentally, in the embodiment described above, it is judged that aselectable automatic photographing condition is satisfied when apredetermined standard level or more is obtained in the judgmentprocessing of each of the set selectable automatic photographingconditions, but the judgment of the satisfaction is not limited to themethod. The selectable automatic photographing condition may also bejudged to be satisfied in the case of according with a predeterminedstandard level or the case of being less than the predetermined level.

To put it concretely, for example, as shown in FIG. 7A, the condition of“level bar indicating 4 or more” may be set to the items of “Stopped”,“Smiled”, and “Faced Camera” among the plurality of selectable automaticphotographing conditions. The conditions may be stored in the datamemory 73. That is to say, the same level may be set to all of theselected automatic photographing conditions.

Further, as shown in FIG. 7B, the condition of “level bar indicating 4or more” may be set to the items of “Stopped” and “Faced Camera” amongthe plurality of selectable automatic photographing conditions, and thecondition of “level bar indicating 5” may be set to the item of“Smiled”. The conditions may be stored in the data memory 73.

Moreover, as shown in FIG. 7C, the condition of “level bar indicating 4or more” may be set to the items of “Stopped” and “Faced Camera” amongthe plurality of selectable automatic photographing conditions, and thecondition of “level bar indicating 2 or less” may be set to the item of“Smiled”. The conditions may be stored in the data memory 73.

In each of the FIGS. 7A, 7B and 7C, it is desirable that the judgmentorder (N) is the same as “N” counted in the flowchart shown in FIG. 6.

Incidentally, as for the item of “exempt from photographing condition”,the flowchart shown in FIG. 6 may be configured so as to skip theprocessing thereof, thus the processing speed can be improved.

Hereby, the range of the selectable automatic photographing conditionscan be widened, and a photograph complying with user's wishes more canbe obtained.

For example, when a photograph without a smile, such as anidentification photograph, is desired, the situation can be dealt withby a configuration in which the automatic photographing conditions arejudged to be satisfied when the degree of the satisfaction to theselectable automatic photographing condition of “Smiled” becomes apredetermined level or less.

Incidentally, the present invention is not limited to the aforesaidembodiment. Various improvements and modifications of the design may beperformed without departing from the sprit and the scope of the presentinvention.

In the following, modifications of the image pickup apparatus 100 willbe described.

<First Modification>

The image pickup apparatus of a first modification sets a degree ofimportance to each of a plurality of kinds of selectable automaticphotographing conditions to perform auto-shutter photographingprocessing by the use of the degrees of importance as image pickupinstruction standards.

That is, although the setting (selection) of a selectable automaticphotographing condition is performed at Step S2 in the embodimentdescribed above, an arbitrarily selectable automatic photographingcondition is first selected among all of the selectable automaticphotographing conditions, and the degree of importance is set to theselected selectable automatic photographing condition as follows in theembodiment described above.

Incidentally, because the image pickup apparatus of the firstmodification is almost the same as the embodiment described above exceptfor the configuration pertaining to the setting of the degrees ofimportance of the selectable automatic photographing conditions, thesame configurations are denoted by the same reference numbers and theirdescriptions are omitted.

That is, here, the central processing section 71 executes the automaticphotographing condition setting program 72 a in the automaticphotographing condition setting processing, and consequently the centralprocessing section 71 makes the image displaying section 32 display anautomatic photographing condition setting screen G2 to set the degree ofimportance (judgment standard) pertaining to the judgment whether tosatisfy each of the plurality of kinds of selectable automaticphotographing conditions or not on the basis of a predeterminedoperation of the selection determining button 41 c, such as the cursorbutton cl and the enter button c2.

To put it concretely, as shown in FIG. 8, the automatic photographingcondition setting screen G2 expresses the degrees of importance of theitems of the plurality of kinds of selectable automatic photographingconditions, such as “Stopped”, “Smiled”, “Sound Detected”, “FacedCamera”, “Eyes Opened”, and “Mouth Stopped”, by the numbers of stars(“white star sign” and “black star sign”).

The larger the number of the “black star signs” of the displays (dotdisplays) colored by a predetermined color is, the higher of the degreesof importance of the selectable automatic photographing conditions are.When the degree of importance is made to be higher, an outlined (havingno dot) “white star sign” becomes a “black star sign” of the displaycolored by the predetermined color (see FIG. 8). For example, theselectable automatic photographing condition “Stopped” has the number ofdot display “black star signs” of three, which is the highest degree ofimportance in the screen G2; the selectable automatic photographingconditions “Smiled” and “Eyes Opened” each have the number of the dotdisplay “black star signs” of two, which is the higher degree ofimportance next to the item “Stopped”; the selectable automaticphotographing condition “Faced Camera” has the number of dot display“black star sign” of one, which is the higher degree of importance nextto the items “Smiled” and “Eyes Opened”; and the selectable automaticphotographing conditions “Sound Detected” and “Mouth Stopped” each havethe number of dot display “black star sign” of zero, that is, having thenumber of the outlined “white star signs” of three, which is the lowestdegree of importance.

Incidentally, the item “Smiled”, which is currently selected on thebasis of a predetermined operation of the cursor button c1 by a user,among the items of the plurality of kinds of selectable automaticphotographing conditions is made to be a display (dot display), thebackground portion of which is colored by a predetermined color.

In this manner, the central processing section 71 and the operationinputting section 41 constitute a standard setting section to set animage pickup instruction standard pertaining to an image pickupinstruction in the auto-shutter photographing processing to each of theplurality of kinds of selectable automatic photographing conditions.

Then, when the central processing section 71 executes the automaticphotographing condition judging program 72 b in the program memory 72,the central processing section 71 also executes the selectable automaticphotographing condition judging program together with the automaticphotographing condition judging program 72 b, and judges whether tosatisfy the image pickup instruction standards pertaining to theplurality of kinds of selectable automatic photographing conditions setin the automatic photographing condition setting processing or not. Toput it concretely, for example, in the degree of importance of theselectable automatic photographing condition “Faced Camera”, thejudgment standard (selectable automatic photographing condition) isjudged to be satisfied only in the case where the face of a subjectperson is facing almost to the camera (see FIG. 9A) in the case of thehighest degree of importance (the number of the dot display “black starsigns” is three); the judgment standard is judged to be satisfied in thecases where the face of the subject person is facing almost to thecamera and the diagonally forward (see FIGS. 9A and 9B) in the casewhere the degree of importance is second highest (the number of the dotdisplay “black star signs” is two); the judgment standard is judged tobe satisfied in the case where the face of the subject person is facingalmost to the camera, the diagonally forward, and the transversedirection (see FIGS. 9A-9C) in the case where the degree of importanceis next third highest (the number of the dot display “black star sign”is one); and the selectable automatic photographing condition is judgedto be satisfied regardless of the facing direction of the subject personin the case where the degree of importance is the lowest (the number ofthe dot display “black star sign” is zero).

Here, the central processing section 71 functions as a judgment standardjudging section to judge whether to satisfy a plurality of judgmentstandards set in the automatic photographing condition settingprocessing or not.

That is, the central processing section 71 functions to determine theautomatic photographing conditions on the basis of the judgmentstandards of the set plurality of kinds of selectable photographingconditions, and to judge whether to satisfy the automatic photographingconditions or not.

Then, when all of the judgment standards pertaining to the plurality ofkinds of selectable automatic photographing conditions are judged to besatisfied in the automatic photographing condition judging processing,the central processing section 71 executes the automatic image pickupinstruction control program 72 e in the program memory 72 to instructthe image pickup of the recording image for image recording to the imagepickup section 1.

Incidentally, the judgment standards according to the degrees ofimportance of the selectable automatic photographing conditions and tothe states of the level bars may be associated.

For example, as shown in FIG. 10A, when the number of the dot display“black star signs” is “0”, then “exempt from photographing condition”,which judges that any state satisfies the selectable automaticphotographing condition, may be associated; when the number of the“black star signs” is “1”, then “level bar indicating 3 or more”, whichjudges that the state of three or more level bars satisfies theselectable automatic photographing condition, may be associated; whenthe number of the “black star signs” is “2”, then “level bar indicating4 or more”, which judges that the state of four or more level barssatisfies the selectable automatic photographing condition, may beassociated; and when the number of the “black star signs” is “3”, then“level bar indicating 5”, which judges that the state of five level barssatisfies the selectable automatic photographing condition, may beassociated.

By the above described configuration, the settings shown in FIG. 8 maybe configured as shown in FIG. 10B on the basis of the degree ofimportance of the selectable photographing conditions stored in the datamemory 73 and of the table shown in FIG. 10A. That is, the item of“Stopped” may be associated with the condition of “level bar indicating5”; the item of “Smiled” may be associated with the conditions of “levelbar indicating 4 or more”; the item of “Sound Detected” may beassociated with the condition of “exempt from photographing condition”;the item of “Faced Camera” may be associated with the condition of“level bar indicating 3 or more”; the item of “Eyes Opened” may beassociated with the condition of “level bar indicating 4 or more”; andthe item of “Mouth Stopped” may be associated with the condition of“exempt from photographing condition”.

In FIG. 10B, it is desirable that the judgment order (N) is the same as“N” counted in the flowchart shown in FIG. 6.

Here, as for the item of “exempt from photographing condition”, theflowchart shown in FIG. 6 may be configured so as to skip the processingthereof, thus the processing speed can be improved.

Incidentally, the associations of the degrees of importance of theselectable automatic photographing conditions and the judgment standardsaccording to the states of the level bars are not limited to the onesshown in FIG. 10A, and the settings may not only be configured so as toperform the automatic photographing at a predetermined level or more (orat more than the predetermined level), but also be configured so as toperform the automatic photographing at a predetermined level or less (orless than the predetermined level).

For example, as shown in FIG. 10C, when the number of the dot display“black star signs” is “0”, then the condition of “level bar indicating 2or less”, which judges that two or less level bars satisfies theselectable automatic photographing condition, may be associated; whenthe number of the “black star sign” is “1”, then the condition of“exempt from photographing condition”, which judges that any statesatisfies the selectable automatic photographing condition, may beassociated; when the number of the “black star signs” is “2”, then thecondition of “level bar indicating 3 or more”, which judges that threeof more level bars satisfies the selectable automatic photographingcondition may be associated; and when the number of the “black starsigns” is “3”, then the condition of “level bar indicating 4 or more”,which judges that four or more level bars satisfies the selectableautomatic photographing condition may be associated.

Consequently, according to the image pickup apparatus of the firstmodification, the setting of the plurality of kinds of selectableautomatic photographing conditions can be made to be finer, andconsequently auto-shutter photographing processing can be performed inconsideration of the degree of importance of each selectable automaticphotographing condition. That is, by changing the largeness of thedegree of importance of the selectable automatic photographingconditions, the scope of the setting of the automatic photographingconditions can be widened, and a photograph complying with user's wishesmore can be obtained.

Incidentally, although the recording image for image recording is pickedup when all of the judgment standards pertaining to the plurality ofkinds of selectable automatic photographing conditions, which standardshave been set in the automatic photographing condition judgingprocessing, are judged to be satisfied in the first modification, thetiming of the recording of the recording image is not limited to theabove timing. The recording image may be picked up when at least one ofthe plurality of kinds of judgment standards is judged to be satisfied.

Moreover, the degree of importance may simply be used as a weight ofdata, and the following configuration may be adopted: 100% in the caseof three “black star signs”, 75% in the case of two “black star signs”,50% in the case of one “black star sign”, and 25% or the turning-off ofthe function in the case of no “black star sign”.

Moreover, the image pickup apparatus may be configured so that theshutter thereof is released when a product of each piece of data and theweight is calculated for each item and the total of the products becomesa predetermined condition or more even when not all of the items aresatisfied.

Furthermore, in the first modification, an arbitrarily selectableautomatic photographing condition is first selected, and then the degreeof importance is set to the selected selectable automatic photographingcondition, but other configurations may be adopted. The degrees ofimportance may be set to all of the selectable automatic photographingconditions (automatic photographing condition configuration items). Inthis case, the degrees of importance of the all of the selectableautomatic photographing conditions are first set, and then anarbitrarily selectable automatic photographing condition may be selectedto determine the automatic photographing condition and to performphotographing.

Moreover, the aforesaid embodiment and the first modification areconfigured to perform photographing when all of the set selectableautomatic photographing conditions are satisfied, but otherconfigurations may be adopted. The configuration of performingphotographing when a predetermined number of selectable automaticphotographing conditions are satisfied among the set selectableautomatic photographing conditions may be adopted.

To put it more concretely, when a child moving around is photographed,it is difficult to satisfy all of the set selectable photographingconditions. Consequently, the aforesaid configuration of judging thatthe automatic photographing conditions are satisfied when apredetermined number of the selectable automatic photographingconditions are satisfied among the set selectable automaticphotographing conditions as described above, and of performing automaticphotographing is sometimes preferable.

Hereby, even in the case of a photographing situation in which it isdifficult to satisfy all of the photographing conditions, the automaticphotographing according to the present invention can be applied.

Moreover, a further deepened following configuration may be adopted.That is, first selectable automatic photographing conditions that arenecessarily surely satisfied and second selectable automaticphotographing conditions that are not necessarily satisfied are set, andit is judged that automatic photographing conditions are satisfied whenall of the first selectable automatic photographing conditions and apredetermined number of selectable automatic photographing conditionsamong the second selectable automatic photographing conditions aresatisfied to perform automatic photographing.

Hereby, it becomes possible to perform photographing nearer to a desiredstate.

To sum up, the aforesaid three photographing modes are:

1. When all selectable automatic photographing conditions are satisfied,automatic photographing is performed;

2. When a predetermined number of selectable automatic photographingconditions is satisfied, automatic photographing is performed; and

3. When all of the first selectable automatic photographing conditionand a predetermined number of the second selectable automaticphotographing conditions are satisfied, automatic photographing isperformed.

The configuration of enabling an arbitrary selection of one of the threephotographing modes may be adopted. Here, the selection of thephotographing mode is supposed to be performed at Step S1 in theflowchart of FIG. 5.

Moreover, the three photographing modes can be realized by changing thecontent of the program of the automatic photographing condition judgingprocessing at Steps S2 and S3 in the flowchart of FIG. 5.

<Second Modification>

An image pickup apparatus 200 of a second modification detects aplurality of people among subjects, and sets an automatic photographingcondition to each person to perform auto-shutter photographingprocessing.

Incidentally, because the image pickup apparatus 200 of the secondmodification is almost the same as the above described embodiment exceptfor the configuration pertaining to plural person detecting processing,the same configurations are denoted by the same reference numbers, andtheir descriptions are omitted.

As shown in FIG. 11, the program memory 72 stores a plural persondetecting program 72 f in addition to the automatic photographingcondition setting program 72 a, the automatic photographing conditionjudging program 72 b, the image pickup state display control program 72c, the judgment starting time setting program 72 d, and the automaticimage pickup instruction control program 72 e.

Further, the central processing section 71 comprises an automaticphotographing condition setting program processing section 71 acorresponding to the automatic photographing condition setting program72 a, an automatic photographing condition judging program processingsection 71 b corresponding to the automatic photographing conditionjudging program 72 b, an image pickup state display control programprocessing section 71 c corresponding to the image pickup state displaycontrol program 72 c, a judgment starting time setting programprocessing section 71 d corresponding to the judgment starting timesetting program 72 d, an automatic image pickup instruction controlprogram processing section 71 e corresponding to the automatic imagepickup instruction control program 72 e, a plural person detectingprogram processing section 71 f corresponding to the plural persondetecting program 72 f, and the like.

The plural person detecting program 72 f makes the central processingsection 71 function as a plural person detecting section. That is, theplural person detecting program 72 f is a program for making the centralprocessing section 71 realize the function pertaining to the processingto detect a plurality of people from a subject image picked up by theimage pickup section 1. To put it concretely, the central processingsection 71 executes the plural person detecting program 72 f to detectthe faces of a plurality of people from a subject image by facedetecting processing on the basis of the recording image data generatedby the image pickup section 1.

Then, the central processing section 71 executes the automaticphotographing condition setting program 72 a in the program memory 72 toset automatic photographing conditions to each of the plurality ofpeople detected by the plural person detecting processing. Here, as thesetting method of automatic photographing condition, for example, themethod of selecting the face of each person and an almost rectangularframe (not shown) displayed to be superimposed on the face on the basisof a predetermined operation of the operation inputting section 41, andafter that, of setting automatic photographing conditions in apredetermined automatic photographing condition setting screen (notshown) can be cited.

After that, the central processing section 71 executes the automaticphotographing condition judging program 72 b in the program memory 72 tojudge whether the automatic photographing conditions pertaining to aplurality of people which conditions have been set by the automaticphotographing condition setting processing, are satisfied or not. Here,as the judging method of the automatic photographing conditions, forexample, the following method can be cited: the processing of specifyinga person pertaining to the judgment of the automatic photographingconditions among a plurality of people is preformed before theprocessing at Step S81 in FIG. 6; the succeeding processing is performedto the specified person; when all are judged to be satisfied, the nextperson is specified, and the same processing is performed; thereby, itis judged whether all of the automatic photographing conditionspertaining to a plurality of people are satisfied or not.

Then, when the automatic photographing conditions pertaining to theplurality of people are judged to be satisfied by the automaticphotographing condition judging processing, then the central processingsection 71 executes the automatic image pickup instruction controlprogram 72 e to instruct the image pickup of the recording image forimage recording to the image pickup section 1.

Consequently, according to the image pickup apparatus 200 of the secondmodification, even when a plurality of people are included in a subject,automatic photographing conditions can be arbitrarily set to theplurality of people by the auto-shutter photographing processing, and auser-desired photograph can be easily obtained.

For example, when a family photograph is taken by the automaticphotographing, the automatic photographing conditions can beindividually set to adults, such as a father and a mother, and a baby.Consequently, even when the movement of the baby is unrestful or thebaby is sleeping, a user-desired photograph can be obtained by notsetting predetermined automatic photographing conditions, such as“Stopped”, “Faced Camera”, “Eyes Opened”, and the like, to the baby, orby making the judgment standards of the automatic photographingcondition looser even when the conditions are set.

Incidentally, the order of judging the selectable automaticphotographing conditions to a plurality of people may be set, forexample, to give the priority to a person near to the center or an adult(an elderly person), or to conform to the degree of importance, such asthe order of registered faces (for example, father→mother→child) or thelike.

To put it concretely, the order may be set as follows: the higher thedegree of importance is, the larger the person number associated witheach person is set to be; and the larger the person number is, thelatter the judgment order of the selectable automatic photographingconditions is.

For example, when the judging of the selectable automatic photographingconditions is set to be performed in the order of the persons havinglower degrees of importance, as shown in FIG. 12A, the judgment ordersset as follows are stored in the data memory 73: the judging of the itemof “Stopped” and the condition of “level bar indicating 4 or more” thatare associated to a person (person number “1”) having the lowest degreeof importance is set as a judgment order “1”; the judging of the item of“Smiled” and the condition of “level bar indicating 5” that areassociated to the same person is set as a judgment order “2”; thejudging of the item of “Faced Camera” and the condition of “level barindicating 4 or more” that are associated with the same person is set asthe judgment order “3”; the judging of the item of “Stopped” and thecondition of “level bar indicating 4 or more” that are associated with aperson (person number “2”) having the second lowest degree of importanceis set as a judgment order “4”; the judging of the item of “Smiled” andthe condition of “level bar indicating 5” that are associated with sameperson is set as a judgment order “5”; the judging of the item of “FacedCamera” and the condition of “level bar indicating 4 or more” that areassociated with the same person is set as a judgment order “6”; thejudging of the item of “Stopped” and the condition of “level barindicating 4 or more” that are associated with a person (person number“3”) having the highest degree of importance is set as a judgment order“7”; the judging of the item of “Smiled” and the condition of “level barindicating 5” that are associated with the same person is set as ajudgment order “8”; and the judging of the item of “Faced Camera” andthe condition of “level bar indicating 4 or more” that are associatedwith the same person is set as a judgment order “9”.

At this time, for example, the automatic photographing condition ordershaving the lower degrees of importance may be preferentially considered,that is, the selectable automatic photographing conditions may be judgedin the order of the automatic photographing conditions having the lowerdegrees of importance and the people having lower degrees of importance.

To put it concretely, as shown in FIG. 12B, the judgment orders set asfollows are stored in the data memory 73: the judging of the item of“Stopped” associated with the condition of “level bar indicating 4 ormore” and associated with a person (person number “1”) having the lowestdegree of importance is set as a judgment order “1”; the judging of theitem of “Stopped” associated with the condition of “level bar indicating4 or more” and associated with a person having the second lowest degreeof importance (person number “2”) is set as a judgment order “2”; thejudging of the item of “Stopped” associated with the condition of “levelbar indicating 4 or more” and associated with a person (person number“3”) having the highest degree of importance is set as the judgmentorder “3”; the judging of the item of “Faced Camera” associated with thecondition of “level bar indicating 4 or more” and associated with theperson (person number “1”) having the lowest degree of importance is setas a judgment order “4”; the judging of the item of “Faced Camera”associated with the condition of “level bar indicating 4 or more” andassociated with the person (person number “2”) having the second lowestdegree of importance is set as a judgment order “5”; the judging of theitem of “Faced Camera” associated with the condition of “level barindicating 4 or more” and associated with a person (person member “3”)having the highest degree of importance is set as a judgment order “6”;the judging of the item of “Smiled” associated with the condition of“level bar indicating 5” and associated with the person (person number“1”) having the lowest degree of importance is set as a judgment order“7”; the judging of the item of “Smiled” associated with the conditionof “level bar indicating 5” and associated with the person (personnumber “2”) having the second lowest degree of importance is set as ajudgment order “8”; and the judging of the item of “Smiled” associatedwith the condition of “level bar indicating 5” and associated with theperson (person number “3”) having the highest order of importance is setas a judgment order “9”.

Incidentally, although the judging of the items of “Stopped” of aplurality of people is preferentially performed to the judging of theitems of “Faced Camera”, both the items “Stopped” and “Faced Camera” areassociated with the condition of “level bar indicating 4 or more”, andconsequently their judgment orders are not limited to the ones describedabove, and the judgment orders of the items of “Faced Camera” may be setas the prior ones.

Incidentally, although the central processing section 71 instructs theimage pickup of the recording image when all of the automaticphotographing conditions pertaining to a plurality of people are judgedto be satisfied in the second modification described above, the timingof the instruction is not limited to that. For example, it may bepossible to adopt the configuration of starting the judgment of theautomatic photographing conditions from a person situated in almost thecenter in the angle of view to instruct the image pickup of therecording image when at least the automatic photographing conditionspertaining to the person are satisfied.

Furthermore, when the image pickup time state screen C pertaining to theimage pickup state of a subject is displayed in the image displayingsection 32 in real time by the image pickup apparatus 200 of the secondmodification, only the image pickup time state screen C pertaining tothe person who does not satisfy the automatic photographing conditionsmay be displayed, or may be displayed to be switched to a plurality ofpeople.

Moreover, although the second modification enables the setting of aplurality of automatic photographing conditions corresponding to eachperson, the method of the setting is not limited to this one. Forexample, the method of setting any one of the automatic photographingconditions and performing photographing when the set automaticphotographing condition is satisfied by all the people may be adopted.Alternatively, the method of performing the photographing when only apredetermined person (for example, a person situated at the center)satisfies the set automatic photographing condition may be adopted.

Moreover, although the embodiment is set to perform the self-timerphotographing processing, the aspect is not limited to this one. Themethod of performing automatic photographing condition judgingprocessing immediately after a user's predetermined operation of theshutter button 41 a may be adopted.

Moreover, the embodiment is adapted to display the image pickup state ofa subject in the image displaying section 32 in real time, but thedisplay of the image pickup state is not limited to this manner. Theimage pickup state of the subject may be informed by another informingsection. For example, an LED capable of displaying the changes of imagepickup state may be provided on the front sides of the image pickupapparatus 100 or 200, or a speaker sounding different sounds accordingto image pickup states may be installed.

Furthermore, although the embodiment is adapted to pick up the recordingimage for image recording when all of the set plurality of kinds ofselectable automatic photographing conditions is judged to be satisfiedin the automatic photographing condition judging processing, the time ofthe recording image pickup is not limited to this one. The recordingimage may be set to be picked up when at least one of the plurality ofkinds of selectable automatic photographing conditions is judged to besatisfied.

Furthermore, although the embodiment is configured to perform thejudgment of acceptability to each item of each selectable automaticphotographing condition, and to perform photographing when all of theitems are accepted, the manner is not limited to this one. Each item ofeach selectable automatic photographing condition may be given a score,and photographing may be performed when the total score becomes apredetermined one ore more. That is, in place of setting a predeterminednumber of automatic photographing conditions among a plurality of kindsof selectable automatic photographing conditions defined as thecandidates of the selectable and settable automatic photographingconditions, one automatic photographing condition may be set bycombining the items of the plurality of kinds of selectable automaticphotographing conditions.

Hereby, the degree of freedom of the setting of an auto-shutter can beimproved.

Moreover, although the embodiment and the first and second modificationsare configured to photograph one still image by performing automaticphotographing when the automatic photographing conditions are satisfied,the present invention is not limited to such a configuration. Forexample, the configuration of recording a still image at the timing whenthe automatic photographing conditions are satisfied among the imagesthat are being photographed as a moving image, continuously shot images,or through-the-lens images may be adopted. That is, the configuration ofperforming only the recording of photographed image when the automaticphotographing conditions are satisfied while performing photographingcontinuously may be adopted.

Moreover, the configurations exemplified in the embodiments of the imagepickup apparatus 100 and 200 are only examples, and are not limited tothose.

Furthermore, although, as the selectable automatic photographingconditions, “Stopped”, “Smiled”, “Sound Detected”, “Faced Camera”, “EyesOpened”, and “Mouth Stopped” are exemplified, the selectable automaticphotographing conditions are not limited to those ones. Anything may beused as long as they can be applied as the judgment standards of whetherto instruct the image pickup or not at the time of selectable automaticphotographing processing.

In addition, the embodiment adopts the configuration of realizing thefunctions as the condition setting section, the condition judgingsection, the instruction control section, the individual judgmentsection, the standard setting section, the judgment starting timesetting section, the plural person detecting section, the image pickupstate sequential display control section, and the after-image pickupstate displaying control section by the execution of the predeterminedprograms and the like by the central processing section 71, but thepresent invention is not limited to the configuration. For example, thefunctions may be realized by the configuration of logic circuits and thelike for realizing the various functions.

Further, the embodiment above adopts the configuration performing eachjudgment according to the predetermined judgment order, but eachprocessing is actually performed with a considerable amount ofprocessing speed. Thus, although each processing is individuallyperformed in the embodiment, all of the judgments may be regarded asbeing performed at almost the same time.

Moreover, although the embodiment above adopts the configurationperforming each judgment according to the predetermined judgment order,the present invention is not limited to the configuration.

To put it concretely, a configuration in which a plurality of judgmentsmay be performed at the same time, or a configuration in which all ofthe judgments may be performed at the same time, may be adopted.

Thereby, there is an advantage in which a photographed image whichfurther satisfies all the conditions at the same time can be obtained.

Moreover, the embodiment above mainly describes regarding the detectionof people's faces and the specification of a person, but the presentinvention is of course not limited to this, and may perform thedetection and the specification of a notable subject such as a car, ananimal and the like, instead of those of people.

The entire disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-234102filed on Sep. 10, 2007 including description, claims, drawings, andabstract are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

1. An image pickup apparatus comprising: an image pickup section to pickup a subject; a plurality of persons detecting section to detect aplurality of persons in the subject to be picked up by the image pickupsection; an automatic photographing condition setting section toarbitrarily set, person by person, respective different conditionsindividually for each of the plurality of persons detected by theplurality of persons detecting section, among a plurality of kinds ofselectable automatic photographing conditions which are settable bybeing selected, so as to set an automatic photographing condition; anautomatic photographing condition judging section to judge whether theautomatic photographing condition set by the automatic photographingcondition setting section is satisfied or not; and an automatic imagepickup instruction control section to instruct the image pickup sectionto pick up the subject or to instruct that a subject image be recorded,when the automatic photographing condition is judged to be satisfied bythe automatic photographing condition judging section.
 2. The imagepickup apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a selectableautomatic photographing condition judging section to judge whether theselectable automatic photographing conditions set by the automaticphotographing condition setting section are individually satisfied ornot.
 3. The image pickup apparatus according to claim 2, wherein theautomatic photographing condition judging section judges that theautomatic photographing condition is satisfied, when all of theselectable automatic photographing conditions are judged to be satisfiedby the selectable automatic photographing condition judging section. 4.The image pickup apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the automaticphotographing condition judging section judges that the automaticphotographing condition is satisfied, when a predetermined number of theselectable automatic photographing conditions are judged to be satisfiedby the selectable automatic photographing condition judging section. 5.The image pickup apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising astandard setting section to set judgment standards pertaining to ajudgment of the selectable automatic photographing conditions for eachof the plurality of kinds of selectable automatic photographingconditions, wherein the selectable automatic photographing conditionjudging section judges whether the judgment standards set by thestandard setting section are satisfied or not, to judge whether theselectable automatic photographing conditions are satisfied or notaccording to a result of the judgment.
 6. The image pickup apparatusaccording to claim 1, further comprising a photographing conditionrecording section to record, after the subject is picked up by the imagepickup section, the automatic photographing condition set by theautomatic photographing condition setting section, and image informationpicked up and generated by the image pickup section, so that theautomatic photographing condition and the image information areassociated with each other.
 7. The image pickup apparatus according toclaim 1, further comprising an image pickup state recording section torecord, after the subject is picked up by the image pickup section,image information picked up and generated by the image pick up section,and an image pickup state of the subject related to the automaticphotographing condition, so that the image information and the imagepickup state are associated with each other.
 8. The image pickupapparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a judgment startingtime setting section to set a judgment starting time of judging whetherthe automatic photographing condition is satisfied or not by theautomatic photographing condition judging section, to be started when apredetermined amount of time passes after a predetermined operation. 9.The image pickup apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising animage pickup state sequence display control section to make an imagepickup state which is associated with the automatic photographingcondition of the subject image picked up by the image pickup section besequentially displayed, based on a judgment result of whether theautomatic photographing condition is satisfied or not by the automaticphotographing condition judgment section.
 10. The image pickup apparatusaccording to claim 1, further comprising an after-image pickup statedisplay control section to make the subject image at the time of thesubject being picked up by the image pickup section, and an image pickupstate which is associated with the automatic photographing condition ofthe subject image be displayed, after the subject is picked up by theimage pickup section.
 11. A non-transitory computer-readable recordingmedium storing a computer-executable program for controlling an imagepickup apparatus comprising an image pickup section to pick up a subjectto perform functions comprising: detecting a plurality of persons in thesubject to be picked up by the image pickup section; arbitrarilysetting, person by person, respective different conditions individuallyfor each of the plurality of persons, among a plurality of kinds ofselectable automatic photographing conditions which are settable bybeing selected, so as to set an automatic photographing condition;judging whether the set automatic photographing condition is satisfiedor not; and instructing the image pickup section to pick up the subjector instructing that a subject image be recorded, when the automaticphotographing condition is judged to be satisfied.